RBP3 Lurker Discussion Thread - No Players!

[sunrise089]

Hi all,

Non-RBP3 players, please have fun discussing the game. See you here when it's over

[novice]

I decided to make a summary around the T30 mark (well, all I did was gather some screenshots from the various lurker threads.)
So go here to see worldwide screenshots from around turn 30!

Original post:
Woke up to two new subforums. Christmas came early this year!

Unfortunately I unthinkingly read the Map making thread so I guess I might as well lurk all 17 teams in this game... My prediction: In a month, just a few lurker threads telling the story will still be active.

[spacemanmf]

And we'll be on indefinite pause to sort out an unforeseen issue...

[novice]

Whoah! Another lurker! I thought everyone was playing...

[banshee]

Hi guys, another lurker checking in.

Some initial thoughts: Sullla did a great job with the map, though I think I have to point out some things:

- LoS: Although all the starts seem to be well-balanced, there are some that are almost completely unfogged (like HRE) while other players can't see beyond their intial 9 tiles (Babylon). Especially this one strikes me:

How come they can see the 3 southern tiles? I guess their units have been moved during the mapmaking process, but still, that's some kind of advantage they have.

- Why are so many teams keen on moving their capital? Do they really assume that a plains sheep was their only food ressource? Granted, I know more than they know, but if you play on a crafted map settling on the starting tile is never wrong imho.

- What are those Babylonians smoking?

Is it just me or does giving up the river and several unfogged tiles (including possible food ressources) seem pretty strange, to say the least? Why not settle 1 SW? With only a 4f tile their capital is gonna suck hard. Again, I don't consider myself a good player either but imho they really screwed their start

That said, I'm really enjoying the game so far. Especially Krill's plans sound pretty ambitious

[novice]

Yeah, the Babylonians are about to stumble on the first hurdle. Have they founded yet? They should have had more faith in the mapmaker and just settled in place.

[Wyrmsbane]

Hmm that does seem rather weedy but i do buy their logic. The LoS at start of game compared to other civ's was very harsh as they couldn't see any useful early resources.

Moving on a plains hill isn't an awful move but, as you have said, SW would have kept the river also.

[Olodune]

I'm surprised settling on the silver (for those starts that still keep their food) isn't more popular. An extra happy (and +1 commerce) surely must outweigh a decent commerce tile that can't be worked before Iron Working, don't you think?

[McClure]

I'm surprised settling on the silver (for those starts that still keep their food) isn't more popular. An extra happy (and +1 commerce) surely must outweigh a decent commerce tile that can't be worked before Iron Working, don't you think?

I think the Financial civs may really be missing the boat here. Settling on the Silver should yield a 3-commerce city center (since a straight river, grassland silver would be 3 commerce for a Financial civ). An extra two commerce is basically the equivalent of having a Library in your capital for the first 30-40 turns, and then possibly allows an extra city to be settled before the economy totally crashes. That's on top of being able to grow all cities one size larger at Mining instead of Iron Working.

The team playing as Huayna gets a pass, since settling on the Silver loses one of their food, but Pacal and Liz could have really benefited. Not only would they have kept both food, but they would have been moving from a river grassland tile (late game, cottaged, river grass + US > mined, grass silver). Ragnar might have been able to leave a grass/river/forest for the Silver, but I can't really tell from the screenshot. That would have been even better as you could chop some otherwise-lost hammers.

Only one team even seems to have considered the move. I think that's a credit to the map designer since Sullla (at least) accidentally on purpose put a very unique tile in each teams BFC. (Jungle ain't supposed to be in the BFC and Silver only appears in the bleak tundra) The trade off wouldn't be as tempting for a jungle/grassland/Gems and no one would settle on a Gold.

Players have been trained not to settle on Metals unless it is imperative to keep a resource connected (AW or Team MP) or unless it dramatically improves the food available to a city. We've been playing the game too long and rely on pattern recognition instead of actually analyzing each situation as it is presented to us. Grassland/Jungle/Silver doesn't fit previous patterns, so it is dismissed as noise.

[zakalwe]

Incredibly strange opening moves by Morgan. He had the right idea of settling on silver (I agree with the above analysis), but then for no apparent reason moved his settler in the opposite direction!